About this time last year, we were all agog at the first four episodes of Game of Thrones season 5. Even though only one had aired so far, more than a third of the season leaked on the same day as the season premiere. Those were the four episodes HBO had sent to the media for review purposes, and some jackdaw put them out into the wild. At the time, watching the leaked episodes seemed very exciting. But none of the episodes leaked this season. None were even sent out for review. And it turns out it’s better this way.

Game Of Thrones Season 6: The Luxury Of Absolutely No Spoilers

In essence, Game of Thrones season 6 has been spoilerproof in a way that has never been true for the show before. Until now, the George R. R. Martin books have always provided something of a spoiler roadmap—a comfortingly worn atlas for those who have read the books, and a perilous path for show-only people to watch out for. The Game of Thrones season 5 exacerbated the issues of spoilers because anyone who wanted to could get access to the first 40 percent of the season from the day the show premiered.

It destroyed a lot of the fun. I watched the leaks and subsequently regretted it. It took the joy and fun out of watching the show one episode at a time and participating fully in the online discourse about it, the endless back and forth about future plot developments and whether the show is terrible now. It’s harder to do that when you’re a few episodes ahead.

This season, everyone started on an even keel, even reviewers. Normally, that would be a sign of a show that had lost its footing, that its network no longer believed in it. But that’s certainly not the case for HBO (although the show may indeed have lost its footing). It was simply a matter of security. And that means there wasn’t a spoilery New York Times review of the first half of the season. There’s nothing dangerous lurking out there.

The downside and upside, of course, is that the online conversation about Game of Thrones season 6 is firmly focused on what’s actually happening in the episodes we’ve seen and what we hope the future holds. There’s not much ancillary material to work with—just short teasers for the next episode, and what we’ve picked up from leaks about the production and prophecies from the books.

It seemed like a shame that reviewers didn’t get to preview Game of Thrones season 6. Instead, it makes all of us equal—especially since the books are no longer a guide. And that’s somehow making Game of Thrones more refreshing.